Former Pontiac Mayor questions school district’s transparency

After months of submitting requests with the Attorney General’s office, a handful of Pontiac citizens are listening to audio received from closed session meetings of the Pontiac Elementary School Board that prove the board is breaking the law.

“At the rate we’re going right now…we will have to borrow money to make payroll in April,” Pontiac Elementary School District 429 Superintendent Steve Graham says on the tape of a closed meeting from October 2010.

Discussing school finances in a closed session is not permitted under the Illinois Open Meetings Act, and the attorney general’s office has recognized the discussion as a violation of the law.

But former Pontiac Mayor Scott McCoy, one of a handful of Pontiac citizens who have been submitting Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act requests on the matter, says the attorney general’s office isn’t doing enough.“We want them not only to set them straight, but to make sure that the law is followed by the school board and district and they’re complying with all the laws,” said McCoy. “We know they’re not complying with the laws now. It’s been proven, the AG has so found. We have audio recordings in the school boards and the administration’s own voices that they’re violating it.”Two advisory decisions yielded no action from the school board – until Feb. 26, when the board released the closed session audio recordings as a result of a FOIA request.

Neither the school district – via the superintendent or attorney – nor the attorney general’s office would comment for this story.